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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Ezra Church

I received a nice note from Gary Ecelbarger today. He mentioned that he is indeed in the middle of finishing an Ezra Church battle study, to be published by University of Oklahoma Press with a tentative 2015 release date.

If you are a regular reader here, you might recall that Earl Hess noted in our mid-2012 Q&A that his own Ezra Church book project was "well advanced," so we may have one of those infrequent moments with two groundbreaking works appearing in relatively close succession.

Drew is right and as a publisher I can confirm "advanced stages" can mean a host of things and it usually is something different depending upon who is saying it (publisher or author).

Keep in mind that even if a manuscript is researched and written, it does mean a manuscript jumps to production and release within a few months (unless you are one particular publisher who shall remained unnamed). How much developmental work needs to be done, for example? How full is your schedule for the next couple cycles? Savas Beatie has never worked off a raw manuscript from either of these fellows, so I can't tell you what one looks like. Likely they are pretty solid.

One strategic note: if both appear to be on the same general release glide one publisher may make a bold tactical decision and delay its version a year or so. This allows the first EC to come out, and the reviews to appear. Not enough maps? No mention of X or Y? Skimpy on Z? This would allow the delaying publisher's author to adjust his own manuscript accordingly so there is a reason to purchase the "better" version of the battle. Just an observation.

Good point about release dates. And how about getting somebody on Jonesboro, Ted? There are some interesting maneuver issues and it was, after all, the battle that actually cost the CSA Atlanta. (While Drew has kindly opened the field for me, I'm a "concept" guy - what, me work?)